Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Easy toy quilt tutorial

Baby Quilt Tutorial - Finished
Okay, calling this thing a quilt is a stretch. Or possibly an insult to quilters everywhere. But! It does make a fantastic baby toy. I whipped this up in a hurry one day when I was in need of quiet baby toys. Olive's got a thing for scrunching up textiles. (hooray!) My goal with this was to make something with a variety of textures for her to enjoy.

Here's what you need:

  • 3 - 4.5" x 12" (11.4 cm x 30.4 cm) pieces of cotton

  • 1 - 12" x 12" (30.4 cm x 30.4 cm) piece of fabric for the back (I used a cheap, silky one...the better for scrunching.)

  • 4 - 4" x 12" (10 cm x 30.4 cm) pieces of fleece (Please ignore the obviously 14" long pieces in the photo. I was going to try something else, which wound up not working. IGNORE!)

Baby Quilt Tutorial


Step 1- Sew together the cotton
Placing the right sides together, sew the long sides of two pieces together.
Baby Quilt Tutorial
Connect the third piece in the same way. You'll wind up with something like this:
Baby Quilt Tutorial
Press the seams open in the back:
Baby Quilt Tutorial

Step 2 - Assembly

Pin the back fabric to the front, wrong sides together. Lay one of the fleece pieces underneath at the top, and fold about half of it over like so:
Baby Quilt Tutorial
Baby Quilt Tutorial
Pin into place, and sew the bottom edge. Repeat this process with the opposite edge:
Baby Quilt Tutorial
Place another piece of fleece on one of the open sides, making sure to overlap the already sewn on fleece. Pin, and sew as you did the last two. Add the final fleece piece in the same way. (Yes, I could have been typing "binding" all this time, but you have to admit "fleece piece" is much more enjoyable to say. Try it.)
Using a 1/2" seam allowance, sew around the outside edge of the quilt:
Baby Quilt Tutorial
Trim the threads, and baby, you are done!
Baby Quilt Tutorial - Finished
Notes:

  • This is totally machine washable. And dryable. Unless you use some fancypants fabric that is not, alas, machine washable.

  • I wish I had spent a little more time on this project, honestly. The tiny format would be perfect for trying out new patterns.

6 comments:

Jenny said...

an addendum to your second note:

...or practicing sewing on your brand new sewing machine your mom sent you in the mail and you got yesterday for your birthday which was yesterday that you're totally stoked about since now you can finally finish that crocheted pumpkin shaped pillow you've been "working on" since March that the sewing part has been stopping you from finishing.

yep.

plus i'm going to be a first-time aunt in like 3 days and all these clothes i don't wear anymore soooooo......


thanks :)

Jenny said...

it's a Singer Pixie Plus....it says it has four stitches, but really, i see 8 numbers on the knob so.....i guess it has 8? i'm so excited that i'm paralyzed. haven't touched the thing.

Claire said...

Two very exciting things! Congrats on becoming an auntie! And congrats on the new sewing machine! This is a perfect first project for trying out the new machine. (My first sewing machine was an old Singer. I love that thing. It's broken-ish and still taking up space in the studio, but I just can't seem to part with it.)

jenny said...

I made one!!

You were right, it was easy!!

It was good practice for measuring, cutting, pinning, seaming, problem solving....all that good sewing stuff.

The three front pieces are from some of my uncle's old button-down shirts. For the back, I assembled two 6x12 pieces I cut from one of those re-usable Whole Foods bags which boasts that it was made from plastic bottles....you know the ones. I'd been using it for 2 years, and it was started to get feeble. I retired it last week when the straps finally busted [while I was carrying 2 bags of flour, a bag of sugar, and some other small stuff...luckily, I saw it coming, and was holding the bag appropriately]. I liked the color and didn't have any more fabric that wasn't old cotton shirts. :) For texture contrast, I layered the middle panel on the front and the whole back with periwinkle tulle. I like that it adds texture without drastically changing the overall color. The "Fleece Pieces" :) are from a Joann's Remnant of purply-blue velvet I got from the thrift store :) Sewing that velvet sure was interesting. Slip-slidy velvet!!

I'd heard that sewing velvet was difficult, so I did some impatient research and decided to just dive in when I read that 100% polyester velvet isn't that hard (and since that's what I had.......). The only problem I encountered that I didn't know how to solve was why my top thread kept breaking when sewing through the velvet. I figured it had something to do with either the tension or the gauge of the needle I was using....? By the time I started to figure it out, I was about done anyway.

I made a zig-zag stitch down one seam because I didn't cut the tulle quite right and it didn't make it into the seam on the front, so I thought a zig zag stitch would secure the fabric and also add a little something extra and some asymmetry. I like me some asymmetry :)

I'll email you a pic!

Thanks for the tute!!

Claire said...

Jenny, that is AWESOME!! Thank you so much for coming back here and sharing your project!

jenny said...

:)

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